Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Gogo signed a long-term agreement with Intelsat for pole-to-pole and gate-to-gate coverage from the 10 Tbps shared Intelsat EpicNG/OneWeb network.

Specifically, Gogo’s next generation in-flight connectivity technology will be powered by an innovative high performance shared network featuring reliable, multi-layered Ku-band capacity on the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput geosynchronous (GEO) satellites combined with OneWeb’s planned low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation. Beginning in 2016, Gogo will expand its use of the Intelsat Globalized Network by purchasing additional capacity on Intelsat’s Ku-band infrastructure, a contiguous, resilient network within Intelsat’s 50 satellite system which covers 99 percent of the world’s populated regions.

Gogo’s Intelsat network infrastructure will initially include use of traditional wide beam services and the next generation high throughput satellite (HTS) Intelsat EpicNG platform, which is expected to enter service in 2016. Coverage will include HTS for the North Atlantic, Europe, Middle East, Asia and the Pacific Ocean provided by Intelsat 32e, Intelsat 33e and Horizons 3e. In 2019, Gogo’s 2KU system will begin to access the world’s first GEO/LEO shared network, an evolving service architecture that will incorporate the best features of Intelsat GEO and OneWeb LEO HTS capacity as the complete Intelsat EpicNG and OneWeb systems deploy. When the network is fully deployed, Gogo’s 2Ku systems will be able to dynamically route traffic across the fully global 10 Tbps shared network based on coverage, latency, throughput and other performance criteria.

“Gogo’s open strategy gives us the ability to look to the entire satellite market for innovation, and Intelsat’s EpicNG satellites combined with OneWeb’s LEO constellation offers numerous advantages for aviation,” said Gogo’s president and chief executive officer, Michael Small. “Gogo continues to invest in open platforms that leverage the best connectivity technologies for aviation, because single technology, closed systems will not survive the test of time.”